Newsletter, December 2006
Table of contents
- Student mobility at the core of the European Dream
- Fast Facts
- The stringent situation of the Belarus higher education system
- Campus Europae at the European Parliament
- Outcomes of the Business Subject Committee meeting
- Outcomes of the Law Subject Committee meeting
- Outcomes of the Humanities Subject Committee meeting
- Outcomes of the Engineering Subject Committee meeting
- Turning the spotlight on... Luxembourg
Student mobility at the core of the European Dream
From December 2006 the whole of Europe will be celebrating the 20th anniversary of the renaissance of an ages old idea: that mobile scholar’s eager to bridge countries and cultures should be intrinsic to the notion of Europe itself. Erasmus has achieved much over the last two decades as about one and a half million students have had the chance to study and live abroad, but its remarkable success is not entirely surprising - after all most youngsters are naturally keen to embark on learning exchanges, travel, discover and enrich their personal and academic portfolio, provided they have the necessary conditions to do so. The crucial question that emerges is then what efforts need to be put in place to raise figures well above 1% of the student population participating in exchange programmes?
Picture 1: Campus Europae information session at the University of Latvia
An approach dear to most stakeholders is the financial barriers that deter participation, an issue that has been analysed in detail in the May 2005 and May 2006 editions of the Campus Europae newsletter and which is interestingly put under scrutiny in the latest “Survey of the Socio-Economic Background of Erasmus Students”. Also of interest is that this very same report emphasises in its conclusions the need to promote “further dissemination of the programme and its benefits amongst the student population”. What role may publicity and marketing play in attracting more students?
Picture 2: a student representative giving a radio interview during the Tour d'Europe
In the current academic year the Campus Europae universities are promoting the 2nd round of its International Days – from October to December such events have taken place in Lodz, Nancy, Hamburg, Limerick, Greifswald and Örebro, with more to come in early 2007. This series of International Days meant to address some of the visibility issues detected in the previous year and was jointly organised by students, professors and coordinators. Analyzing its outcomes in detail provides interesting results: in Limerick 60 students officially registered their interest to go abroad with Campus during the one day action; the number of registered students for 2007/2008 was identical in Hamburg upon a week of information session that included representatives from 6 other universities and a wealth of information about each destiny. The results in Nancy were not quite so overwhelming but much interest was expressed by a number of students who were, until then, absolutely unaware of the possibilities that were available to them to study abroad. As for Lodz the Campus Europae Night has gathered over 400 students in the past Wednesday the 13th, who discovered more about the CE cities and universities, joined dances spectacles and participated in contests. The outcomes of the promotional actions in Hamburg, Limerick and Nancy are particularly interesting because they demonstrate that when a bit of effort is put into spreading the word the number of potentially interested movers tends to increase steeply.
Picture 3: an information stand during the Campus Europae Day in the University of Hamburg
It might be that Universities can and should do more to integrate mobility as a normal part of the range of learning opportunities they provide to their students. A positive attitude of the Professors towards mobility and recognition can go a long way; students who have benefited from stays abroad can also play an important advisory role next to their colleagues, and those who aspire to engage in mobility programmes themselves may start establishing useful contacts by engaging and supporting foreign students. Last but not least local and regional partners should also be called to help developing high-quality services for foreign students at reasonable costs (notably accommodation).
Foreign students potential to boost local economies shouldn’t be neglected: in Canada they account for more than $3.8 billion a year, with values rising to $7.4 billions per year in the UK and $8 in Australia (not counting with tuition fees). Proportional benefits can be reaped by any given European city where adequate conditions to host a large community of foreign students exist: 1500 foreign students would spell an average increase of expenditure of more than 9 million euros per year, and these benefits can be further expanded. CE’s Bologna meets Lisbon project aims at networking with regionally established companies and organizations who would provide study related working part-time positions to foreign students - instilling their technical expertise, cultural and linguistic competences and international contacts could intensify economic development and improve social innovation.
External links: Survey of the Socio-Economic Background of Erasmus Students 2006 (pdf file)
Fast Facts
The stringent situation of the Belarus higher education system
The European Humanities University (EHU) hosted the conference “Higher Education in Belarus: Challenges of Internationalization” on the 11th and 12th of December in Vilnius. Among the key speakers were Per Nyborg, former head of the Bologna Follow-Up Secretariat and Christoph Ehmman, Secretary General of EUF-CE. The conference didn’t went unnoticed in Belarus as the Government expressively forbidden all members of the Belarusian universities to take part in this conference and two Professors who had already applied were put into prison the day before the start of the conference. More reports of despotism came from two students from Witebsk who, prior to their enrollment in the EHU, were persecuted in the state universities because of their active participation in human rights campaigns. Prof. Anatoly Mikhailov, rector of the EHU and one of the founders of Campus Europae, announced that the EU established a helpline of about 4.5 million euros to provide help for repressed students, and the Lithuanian Government has set up an identical fund that will assist the EHU in its development purposes.
Campus Europae at the European Parliament
Campus Europae was invited by the European Parliament Commission on Culture and Education to present its views on the future of student mobility. Campus Europae Secretary General, Prof Christoph Ehmann, will make a presentation about alternative funding student support systems, the Bologna meets Lisbon project and other intensive networking projects that are being developed among the 17 member universities of the European University Foundation.
Outcomes of the Business Subject Committee meeting
The Business and Economics Subject Committee met in Luxemburg on the 15th of December. New members from the Universities of Örebro, Luxemburg and Aveiro were welcomed in the Committee, and these will be new destinations available for Business students from 2007/2008 on. All participating Professors agreed to foster students and teacher mobility within the participating universities and the committee discussed the eventual future enlargement of the network. The Committee also started discussing the different curricula offered by the universities so to reach ex ante recognition of the studies abroad. Special events will be organized at the partner Universities to publicize the study programme among the students.
Outcomes of the Law Subject Committee meeting
Attending the Law Subject Committee meeting on 28 November 2006 was a big challenge as the participants could no arrive by planes as they had planned to, because of an environmental inconvenience: fog. Therefore, the planes were not allowed to land but were redirected to either Katowice or Berlin. Finally, all members could participate in the conference on 29 November 2006. The Chairman could then warmly welcome one new member, the University of Hamburg which was represented by Ms Julia Wolff. To have everybody updated once again the specialty of CE especially in comparison with Socrates/Erasmus was discussed and explained.
Apart from discussing and comparing matrices and study plans and outlining their importance as being the heart of this Subject Committee, all members agreed on two more activities. Firstly, a summer school on European Law shall be held in the very centre of Europe, in Luxembourg. Finally, the participants also agreed on publishing and publicising articles of all interested members of the CE law faculties. These articles will be collected and corrected by professional interpreters and publicised as a “CE Law Journal” and on the CE website. So, apart from having the inconvenience of fog, the Chairman could end the conference as being a success and with a lot of work ahead.
Outcomes of the Humanities Subject Committee meeting
The Humanities and Social Sciences Subject Committee convened on the 3rd and 4th of November at the University of Limerick. The encouraging level of attendance enabled a positive and engaged discussion of the compatibility matrices in four main subject areas, namely: Political Science, Sociology, Philosophy and Languages, Literatures and Culture. The matrices are currently in the form of a transparent summary of the great amount of information about study programmes that has been collected. As the Humanities and Social Sciences Subject Committee is the largest and the most extended of all existing committees in EUF-CE, the Members proposed isolating the “priority fields”, according to their compatiibility, their state of development, students´ interest and the availability of English as a language of instruction. It was further possible to design a network for exchange in Tourism Studies, given that there is considerable compatibility and interest within the Subject Committee in this field. It was agreed that the details of the study programmes would be sent soon with a view to constructing a matrix.
Also discussed was the proposal of the CE Presidency for a CE Masters Degree in European Governance, and what might be the best way to achieve this goal. It was decided that those universities interested in being involved in this programme should identify a contact person from their institution to form a sub-committee in order to design the programme. Subject Committee Members were encouraged to continue to promote Campus Europae enthusiastically within their institutions and amongst their students and colleagues, in a continued effort to build on the growing visibility of the network. The organization of information sessions involving ex-CE Movers and student representatives from other institutions was suggested as one way to do this.
The next Subject Committee meeting will be held at the University of Lodz, on the 1st and the 2nd June 2007.
Outcomes of the Engineering Subject Committee meeting
The last Engineering Subject Committee meeting was held in Limerick on the 3rd of November. All of the participants reported on the current situation with the CE exchange as all CE movers are very satisfied with their universities and adressed issues pertaining to next’s years forecoming exchange. The matrices issue was also discussed during the meeting and some progress has been made. The University of Alcala and St. Petersburg State University have joined the Committee and the University on Nancy will be the next host for the Engineering SC meeting in March 2007.
Turning the focus on… Luxembourg
The University of Luxembourg was established on 12 August 2003 to carry out three principal activities: teaching, research and valorization, at the highest international level, as stipulated in its mission statement and in its strategic plan. In practice, students at the University of Luxembourg can choose from a range of courses which include 11 academic or professional Bachelors degree courses, 11 academic or professional Masters degree courses, all of which run completely in line with the Bologna system, as well as 5 specific courses.
Picture 4: the Limpertsberg site of the University of Luxembourg
The University of Luxembourg model is that of a university led by research: in particular, courses for Masters and Doctorates are supported by an environment of solid research, comprising Research Units within its three faculties:
• The Faculty of Sciences, Technology and Communication ;
• The Faculty of Law, Economics and Finance ;
• The Faculty of Language and Literature, Humanities, Arts and Education .
Research and courses are provided by:
Academic staff: professors, assistant professors, lecturers;
Associate academic staff: visiting professors, temporary lecturers;
the intermediate body of assistants and assistant researchers, these being PhD students and post-doctorate researchers.
Picture 5: the townhall of the Luxembourg City
The scientific, administrative and technical staff contributes to the completion of a wide range of tasks essential to the University's activities. The research prism at the University of Luxembourg is quite broad and the University has selected 7 high priority scientific focus areas and 4 medium priority focus areas to receive special support in order to achieve international excellence in these chosen fields. The University of Luxembourg devotes particular attention to the protection and valorization of the discoveries made and work completed by its collaborators and is currently working on a valorization policy in this respect.
Situated in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg at the heart of Europe, the University of Luxembourg places particular emphasis on multilingualism within the scope of its activities in order to enable everyone involved - students, academic staff and administrative staff - to communicate in the country’s many common languages: English, German, French and Luxembourgish. The University of Luxembourg currently conducts its activities on three sites: Limpertsberg, Kirchberg and Walferdange. In the future, the University of Luxembourg will base the Faculty of Sciences, Technology and Communication and the Faculty of Language and Literature, Humanities, Arts and Education at its new site in the Esch/Belval science complex. The final location of the Faculty of Law, Economics and Finance will be decided at a later date.
External links:
University of Luxembourg
University of Luxembourg on the Campus Europae website
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Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!